![]() The light-based combat, where Alan has to lower each enemy’s shield of Darkness by shining a flashlight at them and then blowing them away with a variety of guns, is neat the first handful of times. A good 40% of certain levels consist of just jogging through the woods or down a road, and Alan can only run for about five seconds without slowing down and huffing for air - a relatable trait, from one writer to another, but not the kind of thing that makes for fun gameplay. By today’s standards, it’s a legitimate slog. Let’s get this out of the way up front: The actual act of playing Alan Wake was already boring in 2010. However, its issues are still as glaring as they were 11 years ago, and this remaster does nothing to mitigate them. It’s rife with charm, and overflowing with a mysterious atmosphere, and both are on display in Alan Wake : Remastered more than ever before. You can then jump right into The Writer, the final act for this first game that provides closure for some story threads.Alan Wake is a frustrating masterpiece. Dream up theories about Alan's fate, discuss them with friends, and then see where Remedy takes the tale in The Signal, a short, new DLC chapter that turns the narrative on its head again. Sightseeing is rewarding, but I don't understand the push to collect 100 coffee thermoses other than to hammer home the theme of "awake." It's a strange collectible in a game that focuses intently on story and gameplay flow.Īfter the credits roll on this excellent story – give yourself a few days before jumping into the DLC. Even the world does a great job of conveying story moments, like wind howling menacingly through the woods and destructibility being used to frame Alan's breaking points or seismic narrative shifts. Again, the story pulls you in directions you don't usually see. I loved collecting manuscripts that hold essential plot points and stopping to watch a live-action episode of Night Springs. It has an eerie (yet believable) quality that matches the story's dark tone. The game looks antiquated, but not in a bad way. The crisp 4K resolution makes the dimly lit woods more terrifying and shines a spotlight on some of the aged qualities, like facial animations that don't always line up with a character's emotion or Alan's movements, which are a little too mechanical and exaggerated. The world and character models are subtly touched up to deliver smaller details and a little more realism. This Remedy Entertainment production looked great back in the day, and it still looks good today, but the remaster efforts aren't enough to fully hide the game's Xbox 360 roots. What happened here? Which moment is a dream? Thoughts like these flare up through most of this dark tale. An early sequence where Alan dives into a lake is an excellent example of the narrative's dramatic shifts: The second his hands hit the water, he awakens in his car, blood dripping from his forehead. That feeling of not being able to trust your eyes or even Alan's actions hold the narrative in a tense and highly entertaining state for most of the journey. Standees of him holding his latest book are scattered about in the oddest of places, a visual cue that all is not as it seems. ![]() ![]() The entire story unfolds in the small Washington port town of Bright Falls – a place Alan and his beloved wife Alice travel to try to help Alan find his writing pulse again. My understanding of what happens is likely radically different from yours – making it a hell of a game to discuss. The story draws heavy inspiration from the many works of Stephen King and David Lynch's Twin Peaks and is open to interpretation. ![]() The strong narrative pulse makes this 11-year old game feel somewhat timeless, even with gameplay showing some rust.Īlan's story boils with intensity from the moment you meet him, trapped in a strange nightmare that leads him to a lighthouse. ![]() Many of the words you read foreshadow terrible fates or show how Alan is spiraling into an abyss. It has many of the genre's trappings like carefully placed jump scares, ax-wielding murders lurking in the shadows, and unsightly supernatural threats, but the true terror comes from words written on pieces of paper and thoughts expressed by protagonist Alan Wake.Īlan is a writer lost in his stories, and it's up to the player to figure out what's real and what's a fabrication. We need more games like Alan Wake – a horror experience that scares you, but not in the ways we often see. ![]()
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